§ Mrs. HumbleTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what gross budget will be set for the Social Fund in 2000–01. [117673]
§ Angela EagleThe gross discretionary Social Fund budget for 2000–01 will be £596 million. This represents an increase of £60.8 million over the total gross budget for 1999–2000 made possible by improved loan recovery performance.
As part of this allocation we have increased the Community Care Grant budget by £2 million to £100 million. All Benefits Agency Districts will receive an increase. This will provide more help to grant applicants, in particular families with children and the disabled.
The loans budget will be £494 million; an increase of £57.3 million. To improve the fairness of the scheme this increase will be allocated to Benefits Agency Districts in a way that will, over time, achieve greater consistency of outcome for applicants wherever they live.
£2 million will be retained centrally as a contingency reserve to provide additional help to any Benefits Agency Districts that face unexpected and unplanned expenditure as a result of a local emergency or disaster.
Details of individual District budget allocations will be placed in the Library today.